As people queued up in the wind and rain on a drizzly March morning, takeaway cups of chilli were being prepared.
The Soup Kitchen in Southport sees as many as 60 people turn up in the hope of getting their hands on warm food, from those who suffer from addiction to people who are simply living with the burden of the cost of living crisis, the community service is there for those who need it.
Marie, the manager of the kitchen, showed the ECHO around the tight building and basement, with the 62-year-old spending hours of her week organising food donations and bags for people to take away. Buried away in the basement sit bags and trays of food, although admittedly depleted.
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"It may look full to you but this is nowhere near the amount we had at Christmas," Marie told the ECHO as she organised the pantry. "We're starting to get quiet again. People are generous at Christmas but it's quiet now.
"We're all volunteers and we get no funding at all from the government or the council. We rely on churches and fundraisers. I thought we would take a dip [during the cost of living crisis] but I think it's made people more aware of how others are struggling."
The Soup Kitchen has been on London Street for the last 20 years after it was founded by Justin Dempster before he died. Originally it was more of a community cafe for homeless and vulnerable people, but following the Covid-19 pandemic, it has since changed the way it operates.
Opening three days a week, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, for an hour each day, volunteers will hand out hot food and bags of snacks as well as gloves, hats, sleeping bags and toiletries should anyone ask. Paul, who moved from the Midlands to Southport five years ago found himself involved in The Soup Kitchen after going out of his way to help homeless people one winter.
He told the ECHO: "The government is leaving charities to fix their problems. It's a broken system. We want to fix a broken system but we can't."
On Wednesday, March 1, the volunteers at The Soup Kitchen had a tray of chilli dropped off, generously donated by a local business owner, with 26 of the 27 servings being collected within 20 minutes of the service opening. Helen told the ECHO: "There's so much demand and there's only so much our volunteers make in the timeframe. More often than not we run out of food and have to go to Asda to get more."
As people came to the door, they were greeted with a warm "hello mucker" or by their first name, with Paul often knowing the majority of them well. Paul said: "The vast majority of people have addiction issues or mental health problems. From our perspective, there's different takes on it.
"Some of the people who are homeless will get themselves into trouble with the police at the beginning of winter because of the sub-zero temperatures. The sad bit is that some of the ones who had addictions have gotten clean but because they go back into prison they then start using again.
"But it's freezing temperatures or a warm bed and three meals a day."
Despite the number of people using the service, a survey from Sefton Council found that there were no official rough sleepers in the borough. Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said in November last year: "This zero figure for a second year running is a testament to the hard work of the work our own housing teams and our partner organisations do to help people facing homelessness and rough sleeping.
"But at a time when rents, mortgage rates, heating and lighting costs and prices in the shops are rising, we are concerned that this winter there may well be people who find themselves needing support through no fault of their own."
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